Elon Musk and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met Monday night on an X livestream to discuss topics ranging from immigration to foreign relations. Musk, who runs the leading electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla, notably pitched the pros of Tesla EVs to the over one million viewers who tuned into the conversation.
“People can still have a steak and they can still drive gasoline cars, it’s okay, I don’t think we should vilify people for it,” Musk said. “But I think we should just generally lean in the direction of sustainability.”
Musk said that the future that Tesla was trying to move people towards was solar and electric. Solar power would create the electricity needed to fuel vehicles.
“We don’t believe that environmentalism, that caring about the environment, should mean that you have to suffer,” Musk said, adding that Tesla cars are “beautiful,” “fast,” and “cool.” According to results posted in July, Tesla produced about 411,000 EVs in Q2 2024, resulting in a second consecutive year-over-year drop in deliveries — but its results beat Wall Street’s expectations.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Trump complimented Musk on the X livestream, saying “You do make a great product I have to say. I have to be honest with you. That doesn’t mean everybody should have an electric car, but these are minor details, but your product is incredible.”
EVs have become a politically polarizing issue, with carmakers like Ford reducing how many they produce because of the political divide. However, Musk’s EV pitch could help bridge the divide.
“I think there has been a history of Musk being able to move former President Trump [on] electric vehicles, government subsidies of that industry,” Veda Partners economic policy research director Henrietta Treyz told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
After Trump survived an attempt on his life in July, Musk not only backed Trump with a written social media endorsement but also reportedly committed $45 million per month to America PAC, a pro-Trump super political action committee.
At a rally earlier this month in Georgia, Trump said he had to back EVs after Musk’s endorsement.
“I’m for electric cars. I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump told the crowd.
“So, I have no choice,” he added.
Tesla was down 17.39% year-to-date at the time of writing.
